Tag Archives: Milwaukee

Milwaukee was very warm this weekend, hitting the mid 90s yesterday after a day in the mid 80s. This is summer, of course, which means that the heat isn’t altogether surprising… Until you realize that temperature forecasts were significantly cooler, especially those Sunday highs, which were all at least 6 degrees off. West wind, a bit of compressional heating and sunny skies ahead of thunderstorms all allowed significant warming, which was not expected. The Weather Channel and Weather Service ended up drawing atop the leaderboard.
Actuals: Saturday – High 85, Low 66
Sunday – .46 inches of rain, High 93, Low 65

Late night forecast for the weekend and the beginning of August, Milwaukee. What do we have for you?

At 1145PM, CT, Milwaukee was reporting clear skies and a temperature of 71 degrees. Given the course of the summer, of significantly more importance was the dew point temperature, parked in the low 50s. Dry high pressure was in place over the Upper Midwest, thanks mostly to a more organized trough pooling moisture to the east.
Guidance suggests a weak upper level jet streak allowing a lee trough in the northern Plains to maintain itself through the day tomorrow. The jet will meld with the broader trough to the east of Milwaukee as a lobe on the southwest side of the broader feature. Shower and thunderstorm activity will be possible in the morning on Sunday, however the heaviest activity will be reserved for Lake Michigan and the state of Michigan to the east in the evening.
Tomorrow – Mostly sunny, High 83, Low 64
Sunday – Showers and storms early, giving way to clearing skies, High 85, Low 67

FIO: Tomorrow – Partly cloudy starting in the afternoon, continuing until evening. High 81, Low 63
Sunday – Breezy until evening and rain until afternoon, starting again in the evening. High 84, Low 69

Seems as though showers are going to be on their way sooner rather than later. Again, though, it will just be some showers, rather than thunderstorms. Tough to see anything coming yet, however.

An area of low pressure slowly sludging its way through the Great Lakes rendered Milwaukee dreary this week. Not only was there the rain that we saw as the forecast was issued, but also MORE rain on Tuesday. Some snow mixed in at the very end of the event, and there were a few flurries into early Wednesday morning. Clouds took their time departing, as seems to be the case with every system in the winter. Victoria Weather had the best phrasing in the forecast, but we don’t consider phrasing in our verification. Accuweather, despite suggesting some sun yesterday drew level with us for the top spot in Milwaukee.
Actuals: Tuesday – .10 inches of rain, trace of snow, High 44, Low 29
Wednesday – Trace of snow, High 29, Low 21

Instead of the last train, we’re just going to take a car to Clarksville. This will only be a day trip, lasting nearly 9 hours and covering 553 miles. Our pace will be 63.1mph, and our mood will be “good”.

The weather this week is going to be very active, and even through the day Wednesday, a system will be churning through the Great Lakes, bringing snow and clouds, and another wave will be developing in the Lower Mississippi Valley and will be producing some thunderstorms later on this week. For our drive, though? Nothing. It’s going to be a great trip, and we will only need to worry about a few clouds infiltrating Clarksville just as we arrive.

We’re hitting the road again for a day and a half. Well, that may be optimistic. We will be driving right into the teeth of an area of low pressure sliding out of the Midwest. We’ll see rain change to snow over the course of our 702 mile drive. In perfect conditions, we would produce a 63mph pace. These won’t be perfect conditions. Nevertheless, we won’t rest until we have covered 504 miles on Tuesday.

DAY ONE (Tuesday)
It will already by drizzling as we leave Wlliamsport, with the occluded/cold front reaching us not long after we get underway. Heavy rain will be expected between Clearfield and Brookville. After we have passed Brookville, we will be behind the front and temperatures will begin to drop. Chilly drizzle will be seen throughout Ohio, but we will start to find ourselves within a dry slot as we pass by Toledo. There may be a bit of snow mixing in with the rain, from Toledo to Elkhart, Indiana, but precipitation by this point will be light, and temperatures will be warm, so accumulation and an icy I-90 are not expected. The dreary day will end on the east side of Elkhart.

DAY TWO (Wednesday)
All of the rain and snow will be to our north and east as we head through the Chicago area, but the cloudy skies won’t do the skyline justice. It could be a nice drive through Chicago, though, because we won’t have to worry about glare, and we won’t have to worry about snow. Just stay in your lane and good luck navigating one continuous metropolis from Elkhart to Milwaukee.

We’ve been able to talk about high pressure and quiet conditions for the last several days, but our luck is going to change as we visit Lake Michigan and Wisconsin’s largest city.

At 452PM, ET, Milwaukee was reporting a temperature of 43 degrees with overcast skies and light rain. The entire state was being smothered by clouds and light rain as an area of low pressure centered near Des Moines was attempting to work it’s way northeast into southern Wisconsin. The system is pulling down quite a bit of cold air on the western flank, and rain is changing to snow in Minnesota and Iowa, though that’s a long way off for Milwaukee. In fact, warm air is still surging north through southern Wisconsin, though that will likely continue to pin the low level moisture over Milwaukee tonight.
The low itself will track from Iowa to Ohio through the day tomorrow, keeping showers in Milwaukee overnight. Rain will begin to mix with snow, finally, in Milwaukee tomorrow afternoon. The upper level trough will be flattening out, and melding into a the exit region of a broader trough over the Rockies. The rain won’t end, but the cool down won’t be as significant in Wisconsin as it will be west of their, and snowfall accumulation is not expected. On the other hand, the flattening of the trough will mean associated moisture will remain stuck in the Great Lakes, and though Wednesday doesn’t appear wet, it will be gray.
Tomorrow – Rain, with snow mixing in late, High 42, Low 29
Wednesday – Cloudy and dreary, High 30, Low 23

AW: Tomorrow – Cloudy with a couple of showers, perhaps mixed with snow late in the day High 44, Low 27
Wednesday – Colder with intervals of clouds and sun High 30, Low 23

NWS: Tomorrow – Rain likely before noon, then a chance of rain and snow between noon and 3pm, then a chance of snow after 3pm. Widespread dense fog before 9am. Otherwise, cloudy High 43, Low 28
Wednesday – Partly sunny High 31, Low 25

WB: Tomorrow – Cloudy. Widespread fog in the morning. Widespread dense fog late in the morning…then widespread fog early in the afternoon. Light rain likely in the morning. Chance of light rain early in the afternoon. Chance of light snow in the afternoon. Visibility one quarter mile or less at times in the morning. No snow accumulation High 42, Low 28
Wednesday – Colder. Partly sunny Hgh 30, Low 25

An area of low pressure moving through the Great Lakes brought cold air and snow to parts of the Upper Midwest. One part of the Upper Midwest that did NOT see snow was Milwaukee, but they definitely saw temperatures plummet, just like the rest of the region. It started at midnight on Friday and ended up at 39 by the time Saturday morning rolled around. Milwaukee also saw over 3/4″ of rain fall as the temperatures fell off. Sounds delightful. Victoria-Weather started October off with the victory, however, so that’s kind of nice.
Actuals: Friday – .77 inches of rain, High 66, Low 44
Saturday – Trace of rain, High 47, Low 39

Off to the Dairy State, where they will be playing a little football a couple hours to the north this evening. But what of Milwaukee?

At 1052AM, CT, Milwaukee was reporting a temperature of 69 degrees with mostly cloudy skies. There was rain peaking into the radar imagery over central Illinois, and there was a little bit of lingering shower activity from a band of showers that has moved into Lake Michigan, lying northwest of town. A sharp upper level is sweeping into the Upper Midwest, and has already started to produce heavy rain in the mid-Mississippi Valley, which is what is being hinted at in the southwestern part of the radar.
Heavy rain will continue to build from the southwest, arriving in the Milwaukee area this evening, with scattered showers possible through the afternoon. The Low itself will enhance the rain and introduce a little bit of vorticity, which may in turn lead to a few funnels but otherwise won’t mean severe weather. Heavy rain will fall through the night, accompanied by some breezy conditions and the potential for flash flooding. Rain will lighten up by noon tomorrow, and temperatures will really cool off. While some snow will be possible to the northwest of Milwaukee, it seems unlikely that there will be any flurries in town thanks to the clouds that will be present all day. In short, temepratures won’t cool off fast enough. That said, the cold air will continue to spill in overnight Friday into Saturday, and an inverted trough riding the cold air but appended to the area of low pressure will bring a much better chance for snow on Saturday. Friday’s temperatures will be completely non-standard, with midnight highs and lows.
Tomorrow – Rain, especially early, High 64 Low 44
Saturday – Rain, with some snow mixing in early, High 47, Low 37

Weathernation’s Hourly forecasting remains an unmitigated disaster. It took me a while to figure out that their hourly forecast began 24 hours from now. Why? What? At least, those were the numbers that made sense, otherwise their current forecast was already 13 degrees off. Very strange. Here is the radar imagery that I alluded to earlier.

Another day, another road trip. We’re headed west from Milwaukee, which narrowly avoided a big snow storm today, to Oxnard, which has gracefully avoided snow storms for eternity. It’s a 4 day trip, which covers 2113 miles at a pace of 66.6mph. Our daily rate will be about 533 miles a day. Let’s see if we can get out of the snow.

DAY ONE
Our first day of travel won’t really provide much in the way of significant weather issues. Sure, there will be a lot of left over snow over northern Illinois, but the interstates should be cleared as we drive through them. There is a chance for some isolated flurry activity just as we leave Milwaukee thanks to some onshore flow from Lake Michigan, but then things will clear up nicely, assuming the roads are fine in northern Illinois. Iowa dodged a major bullet, so after the Quad Cities, things should be entirely problem free. We will make it to Ashland, Nebraska, just past Omaha.

DAY TWO
A big old area of low pressure will set up over the northern Rockies and the southwesterly flow associated with it will generate some lee troughing. When we approach the Denver area, expect to find some balmy temperatures, particularly when compared to where we just came from. Don’t expect any precipitation on Thursday for our route. Smooth sailing (or driving) to Evergreen, Colorado, just west of Denver.

DAY THREE
An area of low pressure is moving into the southwest, and will be causing some issues along our route. As we navigate the mountains of western Colorado, we are going to deal with some snow, with the best chance coming on western exposures after we pass through Grand Junction. The typically desolate, lifeless eastern Utah will… well, it will still be desolate and lifeless, but with a chance for some light rain. The Wasatch will feature some snow again, but it will be rain by the time we return to I-15, which is at a lower elevation. The rainy day will end in Paragonah, Utah, which is just north of Cedar City.

DAY FOUR
The back edge if the precipitation will be around Saint George, Utah, in the southwest corner of the state. After that, we can get a into a rhythm that we will probably be a little bit more familiar with in the southwest. Actually, one difference will be that the recent wet weather will help scour the atmosphere a bit, so skies will be a little clearer. Also, it’s going to be a lot colder than normal until we hit the Coastal Range. At that point, it’s going to be a nice little California day.

Driving into the teeth of the storm, what should be a day and a half drive will likely last a bit longer than that. The mileage between the two towns is 814.6. If the weather was cooperative, our pace would be a paltry 58.5mph, so we will still work with the same 468 mile day one that a speed like that would afford us.

DAY ONE
Our drive will skirt the heaviest precipitation for most of the day, but not the entire day. The worst part of our drive tomorrow will be through West Virginia, particularly from Beckley to Charleston, West Virginia where the elevation may turn what would otherwise be rain to snow with the density of concrete, making roads, especially the hilly roads of West Virginia, precarious. After we get out of West Virginia, the trek through Ohio will be littered with spits and starts of a wintry mix that shouldn’t make driving conditions too troublesome. The real thrust of the system will be plowing through northern Indiana as we are getting ready to finish our day, and the last leg between Dayton and Richmond, Indiana, will be marked by increasingly heavy rain, and after we stop in Richmond for the night, just across the border from Ohio, the heavy rain will be switching over to snow. Quickly accumulating snow.

DAY TWO
The snow won’t be falling for very long on our drive on Wednesday, but it will have fallen. The snow will stack up quickly over Indiana and across the Chicago area. There will be a few flurries for about an hour as we head out of Richmond, but the real issue will be whether or not the 7-10 inches of snow are off the highways of Indiana and Chicago. That’s right. 7-10 inches. Likely more in some locations, particularly just north of Indianapolis along I-65. Fortunately, the cut off for heavy snow will be along the Illinois-Wisconsin line. Milwaukee, it appears, will only get brushed by this swipe of winter.

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